3 Main Types of Mobile App Development in 2019

Today, we are seeing a tendency of switching from desktops and laptops to mobile devices when it comes to making quick web searches, important notes, task tracking, playing games, etc. The year is young, but there are mobile app trends of the year 2019 have already knocked on the door – special info.

According to the latest report by We are Social and Hootsuite,
there are more than 5 billion smartphones used worldwide. Moreover, 3.196
billion of them are social media users and 2.958 billion people are active
mobile social users. These tremendous numbers prove that mobile apps play a
significant role in our daily lives and, thus, for any solid mobile app
development company, there is an ongoing need in launching the most useful,
well-designed, and applications to meet wants and needs of mobile users.

The rise of mobile apps in 2018

Once the first iPhone was presented in 2007
followed by the first Android smartphone HTC Dream in 2018, mobile app
development has started. As per Statista, in 2017, there were more than
178.1 billion mobile apps downloaded by users, while in 2018, this number
reached 205.4 billion. It is expected for mobile apps downloads to exceed 258
billion, so there is an incredibly large pool of potential customers for every
mobile software development company. With the most up-to-date technologies and
best UI designs, mobile apps development companies constantly compete for
mobile users’ attention.

The year 2018 can be remembered with a new level
of mobile payments, AI and machine learning development, AR in mobile apps, and
full-screen apps customer experience with new iPhone and Samsung mobile
devices. In 2019, these trends are expected to develop further, as well as the
upcoming tendencies in building progressive web apps, Android instant, and IoT
apps, and it is the AR that is going to play a leading role in UX / UI designs
of all types of mobile apps.

3 Main types of mobile apps in
2019

As for the beginning of 2019, the main types of
mobile applications are the following:

Native apps

These apps are called
“native” because they are developed to be used on a particular platform only.
For example, if a target audience uses iPhones, mobile app creators focus on
developing applications for the iPhone only, using Objective-C and releasing
products on Apple’s App Store. But in so doing, Android devices will not
support such apps. And vice versa, Android apps developed with Java are not
accessible for iPhone users. So, the “native” name refers to one type of mobile
OS for which the apps are created.

Progressive web apps (PWA)

Web apps are not
applications in the full meaning, but websites with the latest UX trends
developed to look and operate inside mobile browsers like common apps. To
access such web app, users follow a specific URL, agree to “install” it and
then, can freely open the application with an icon on their home screens. With
further development of PWA, it becomes harder to distinct web apps and complex
mobile websites. Among the advantages of PWA, there are fast installation, no
problems with updating, secure usage, and customer support.

Hybrid apps

Hybrid app development combines features of
native and web apps. Developers can use such wide-spread web technologies as
JavaScript, Angular, or HTML+CSS instead of learning complex Java of
Objective-C languages. This way, creators are able to lower mobile app
development cost significantly instead of developing a different application
for different OS. And what is more, developing hybrid apps can increase sales
and revenue at the same time. If talking about native vs hybrid app, hybrid
applications can get access to platform features being developed using web
technologies and performs close to a native app but lack some functionality and
quality.

What will change in 2019?

It worth saying that for millennials, mobile apps
are strongly integrated into daily life and the young generation has been grown
accustomed to it. Now, it is time for location-based apps with AR/VR features
to become the primary trend of the year 2019.

Although cross-platform mobile app development is
cheaper and easier to handle, there is a tendency to concentrate on developing
two apps for iOS and Android separately (as these two are the most popular
platforms). Mobile app development companies struggle to improve user
experience, and the money and efforts put in native apps more than offset the
quality of the developed app, its design and functionality. If earlier it was
possible to save on app development without knowing how to hire a mobile app
developer with native app building experience and gain app fans anyway, the
year 2019 is expected to be the year of quality over quantity in the mobile app
development field.